Children’s Author
Get Some Sleep!
You know what a difference it makes when you’re well-rested. How much sleep you get can make or break your day and also your health. However, sometimes no matter how early you hit the hay, getting a restful sleep can be tough, especially as you age. There have been times when healthy sleep eluded me, but luckily I’ve learned a few things about how to get a healthy sleep naturally, and now I’m happy to say that it is rare that I don’t catch a solid night of peaceful sleep.
About 70 million Americans experience sleep problems ranging from chronic sleep disorders to sporadic sleep troubles. Studies show that just one night of insufficient sleep can affect memory, productivity, and even the ability y to carry on a regular conversation. As a writer, researcher, and humanitarian, with several radio interviews a week, I can’t afford to not be at my mental peak, and chances are you can’t either. Long-term sleep deprivation can have serious effects such as higher risk for high blood pressure, depression, heart attack, decreased immunity, obesity, and diabetes. As you can see, getting enough sleep should be as much a part of your health regimen as eating well and exercising are!
Tina Turbin
iStoryTime of DreamWorks Animation Fame Releases New Book for Deaf Children
As many of you know, my award-winning tale Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy has now been released as an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. I am more than thrilled to say the least!
Here’s a copy of the press release announcing the wonderful news about this exciting product:
For Immediate Release
iStoryTime Announces New App: A Book for Deaf Children
iStoryTime, the iPhone App Developer for DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon,” announces release of New App with Sign Language Interpretation of Award-Winning Children’s Picture Book “Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy”.
Los Angeles, CA [August 11, 2010] — iStoryTime, a publisher of children’s storybooks for the iPhone and iPad, announced today the launch of a groundbreaking app for deaf children – a vivid audio-visual presentation of “Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy” that includes a sign-language interpretation. The app is the first of its kind, paving the way for many more cutting-edge products to assist this underserved population.
“We are extremely proud to release the first-ever children’s book app for the deaf community,” said iStoryTime co-Founder, Woody Sears. “Our goal is to use technology to make children’s books accessible and entertaining and we are delighted to be involved in the production of a book that will provide deaf children with the opportunity to read the popular ‘Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy’ story.”
iStoryTime’s book apps, which can be downloaded directly to an iPhone or iPod Touch or iPad, are simple to use and known for their creativity, illustrations, narrations and animation. Options for narrations on different stories include voices of adults, kids, and characters. The narration can also be turned off so that parents can read to kids.
iStoryTime books are available globally for $.99-$2.99 in the iPhone App Store in 80 countries. For a sneak peak of ‘Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy’ visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bijyi6sO20k
About iStoryTime
iStoryTime is part of FrogDogMedia, LLC. The company was founded in 2009 by two fathers and an uncle who love to have fun with their families. Driven by a passion to make children’s books more accessible and entertaining, iStoryTime is the pioneer of children’s book apps for the iPhone. The organization has created a new medium for established and first time authors to showcase their work at no expense. The new publishing platform provides parents with a library of compelling children’s books available anytime, anywhere.
Tina Turbin
Danny the Dragon Supports Deaf Literacy
A passionate literacy advocate, I was alarmed by the literacy statistic among the deaf, and now I’ve begun raising support for education for deaf children. Upon the release of my Danny the Dragon DREAMS, the proceeds of my Danny the Dragon DVD, which features a signed reading of the book for deaf children, will be donated to the local deaf children’s school, Blossom’s Montessori School for the Deaf in Clearwater, Florida. I’m very happy that I’m able to do something to improve deaf education!
Tina Turbin
Get Some Help, Mom!
Get your family to pitch in with chores around the house, especially the kids. Children may not be expert dishwasher loaders and you’ll always be able to do the chores better yourself, but learn to let it go and get them to help you out with some of the things they’ll be able to handle on their own, even if it’s just pairing together and folding socks. Studies show that children who participate in family chores have a higher chance of growing up more successful than other children. It will raise their feels of self-esteem, make them more competent, and it’ll give you some time to do the following energy-boosting tips.
Tina Turbin
Grocery Shopping for Healthy Family Eating
As the mother of three grown children, I know how hard it can be, even with the best of intentions, to eat a healthy diet yourself and make healthy foods for the rest of the family. With just a few simple tips, you can totally change your eating habits for the better.
It all starts with grocery shopping, for which you must make like a Boy Scout and “be prepared.” It is best to create a menu for the week with breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks determined for each day before you even make your grocery list. Choose healthy recipes that take thirty minutes or less to prepare, unless you know you’ll have more time available for cooking. There are many easy, healthy recipes available online which you can prepare in a snap. Make sure there are enough high-protein foods and snacks, which won’t leave you with low blood sugar and send you to high-fat and high-sugar snacks for a fast blood sugar boost.
Before hitting the grocery store, eat a big, filling meal, so you won’t deviate from your shopping list by picking out items that look good just because you’re hungry. You can’t binge on foods that aren’t good for you if you don’t have them in your home, after all. This will not only result in a healthier set of groceries, but will save you money, as well!
Tina Turbin
Learn to Recognize the Difference between Malnourishment and Mental Disorders in Children
If you’re like me, you’re probably alarmed to hear so much about the prevalence of “mental disorders,” particularly among children. It seems that every year there are more and more disorders are emerging, along with psychotropic medications to treat them. However, as the mother of three grown-up, mentally healthy children and with a strong background and experience in nutritional research, I counsel mothers to be careful before mistaking your children’s odd behavior with a mental illness. It turns out the symptoms of malnourishment and mental disorders are actually quite similar in children.
Even just the signs of a deficiency in B vitamins will sounds familiar to you as the symptoms of childhood mental disease. Deficiency in Vitamin B1 can result in fatigue, poor memory, irritability, and insomnia. A B2 deficiency can cause depression. Deficiencies of B3 may begin as depression, but untreated may progress to psychosis or even dementia. Deficiencies in Biotin may cause a variety of problems, including skin disorders and eczema, dandruff or hair loss, fatigue, depression, even hallucinations.
Children can also suffer from a classic case of low blood sugar. Studies show that breakfasts rich in protein keep the body’s blood sugar level higher and more stable than breakfasts such as, say, the American breakfast staple of sugar-packed cereals. Kids are bound to peak in the morning and then crash later in the day, exhibiting hyperactivity and lethargy during the school day.
The consequences of improperly diagnosing a mental illness instead of treating malnourishment in a child can be severe. If you care about your child and children in general, it is imperative that you and your child’s teachers learn the crucial difference between children’s mental disorders and inadequate nutrition.
Tina Turbin
Creating a Memorable Main Character in Your Children’s Book
As a children’s author, I’m often pleased to find that I’ve inspired children and adults to write children’s stories of their own. A question they wonder is what exactly makes a good children’s book. It’s important that a children’s book have a charming protagonist with whom readers can identify. It seems that children tend to literally identify with characters they love; in their imagination and games, they often pretend they are indeed the beloved protagonists of their favorite movies, TV shows, and books.
So what qualities should a children’s story protagonist have? If you study the most popular children’s stories of the last few hundred years, many characters have a superhuman trait or superhuman power, but at the same time they have a human frailty about them which most people have in common—such as a fear or anxiety about something or something in their life that is causing them stress. In Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack is a regular, poor boy with magical beans, and Harry Potter of course finds that he is a wizard. Jack’s magical beans and Harry’s magical genetic endowment delight children, while Jack’s hard circumstances and the fact that Harry is an unloved orphan earn the sympathy of children everywhere.
In Danny the Dragon, I sought to have these same qualities, and I have met many children who truly love and identify with Danny. Of course, some wonderful children’s books lack a traditional protagonist, such as Goodnight Moon or some very delightful counting and alphabet books. This is why nailing down what makes for good children’s books can be a challenge!
Write Your Goals Down
Writing your goals down on paper (or on your computer in this computer age) is essential.
A recent study was conducted recently to find what made Harvard’s most successful graduates so successful. It turns out that the common denominator among these prosperous alumni was writing down their goals. Luckily, you don’t need a degree from Harvard to do that.
Tina Turbin
More Studies Support Health Benefits of Friendship
Other research suggests the health benefits of social support. One study, published in the journal Cancer, followed 61 women with advanced ovarian cancer. The women with lots of social support had much lower levels of a protein linked to more aggressive types of cancer, and higher levels of a protein that boosted the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
In 1989, David Spiegel, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, published an influential paper in Lancet, showing that women with breast cancer who participated in a support group lived twice as long as those who didn’t and reported much less pain. Sheldon Cohen, PhD, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has shown that strong social support helps people cope with stress. Other studies have demonstrated that less connected people tend to die sooner after having a heart attack than people with a strong social network and that having a large social network may even reduce chances of catching a cold, even though you’re probably exposed to more viruses when spending lots of time with others.
“Friends help you face adverse events,” Dr. Sheldon Cohen says. “They provide material aid, emotional support, and information that helps you deal with the stressors. There may be broader effects as well. Friends encourage you to take better care of yourself. And people with wider social networks are higher in self-esteem, and they feel they have more control over their lives.”
Take advantage of these findings by increasing your social network! There are plenty of people out there to strike up a friendship with and plenty of health benefits to look forward to as your friendships blossom.
Tina Turbin
Pesticides Are Shown to be Linked to ADHD
As a concerned mother and a children’s author who cares very much for families and children, I found the following article to be both appalling and at the same time refreshing to know that such a critical issue is being exposed.
While it has been known that pesticides used for our food and vegetable supply pose a variety of health risks, the fact that these same pesticides are linked to so-called ADHD in children is a truth that every parent needs to know about.
Click here to read the full article. Afterwards, browse through this section of my website for MANY helpful tips, resources and information to improve your family’s and your children’s quality of life.
I hope the above information helps you.
Tina Turbin
